🇹🇴Special MEIDECC Press Conference: Submarine Internet Cable Disruption Tonga Cable Limited Blackout
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- Polokalama Makehe Potungaue MEIDECC moe Kau Faiongoongo
Tonga Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications
MEIDECC Office Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga. 6 July, 2024.
Source: Matangi Tonga Website 10 July, 2024.
Vava'u and Ha'apai suffer third cable blackout
By Katalina Siasau
A total communications failure on Tonga's only inter-island domestic submarine cable has continued to severely impact telephone and internet services to the outer islands since 29 June, and it is likely to be several weeks before it is known how long it might take for normal services to be restored.
Tonga Cable Acting CEO, Sosafate Kolo said the cause of the disruption to the cable is unknown. He told a media conference on 5 July that the local telecommuncations operators networks had switched to satellite with limited capacity, in the meantime.
Tonga Cable believed that the cable damage was caused by an earthquake that occured early morning on Saturday, 29 June, as the cable failure occured after the earthquake.
The earthquake happened at around 2:00am, while the communications issue to Vava'u and Ha’apai happened at 2:43am, before a total outage at around 3:30am.
"We think that multiple landslides resulting from the earthquake happened at 2:43 am, and another landslide close to 3:30am that might have completely cut the cable."
Sosafate noted the two faults on the cable are located at 73 km and 96 km from Tongatapu.
They believed the cable is suppressed at 73 km from Tongatapu, while at 96 km, the cable is completely cut.
Repair vessel underway
A repair vessel had departed from Singapore and was expected arrive in the region in the second half of this month, Sosafate said. So this meant the repair timeline is the end of this month.
The analysis of the issues would be confirmed once the repair ship arrived.
"The amount of damage to the cable has not been confirmed.”
"We have a spare cable for repair, but if the damage is more than 50 kilometres, we must postpone the repair until we have sufficient spare cable,” he said.
Limited services
Digicel Tonga CEO, Daniel Horan, stated that their customers lost connectivity to all services including voice, sms, and data services on Saturday, 29 June, in both Vava'u and Ha’apai.
On Sunday, 30 June, Digicel was able to get their backup satellite services working in Vava’u, which give them ability to switch on voice, SMS, and data services, however, not in the same capacity as they normally had.
Daniel also said they had done the same for Ha'apai on Tuesday, 2 July.
He said Digicel planned to dispatch a couple of teams to bring on a microwave terrestrial link to Vavau, using satellite to bring capacity to normal, but it would take two weeks.
TCC CEO Sione Veikoso said they have done restoration for mobile voices, data, and sms to Vava'u on Monday, 1 July, and Ha'apai on Tuesday, 2 July, using their backup satelite link but the bandwidth is low, therefore the services speed was not as effective.
He said they had put up free public wifi at the TCC headquarters office in Neiafu, Vava'u, as well as their office in Ha'apai.
Three blackouts
It is Tonga's third major internet outage, following the national and domestic cable blackouts in 2019 and 2022.
In 2019 it was alleged that a ship's anchor caused over US$1.2 million damages to both the international and domestic cables near Nuku'alofa, causing a communications blackout from 20 January to 6 February.
Then a volcanic eruption in January 2022 cut both cables again. The domestic cable was down for almost 18 months after it was destroyed by underwater pyroclastic flows. When it came back into service on 12 July 2023, Tonga Cable said, "The reason it has taken so long to get the domestic cable repaired is due to the lack of the required amount and type of cable to carry out the repair job. It took five months to confirm the amount of cable to order from ASN. ...Once the order was placed it took ASN took about seven-months to manufacture our cable order and it took around four-months for the order to be shipped from ASN in France and another two-months for the cable ship to get to Tonga.”
Starlink blocked
Meanwhile, Starlink, in an announcement today that shocked its Tonga-roaming customers, stated that it had been directed by the Tonga Government's regulator MEIDECC to disable its services in Tonga. (More on this to follow).
Another major problem for the Tongan people to pray about. Thank you to you all CEO of different departments. Digicel, Tonga Cable...etc. At least a free wifi has been installed at the TCC Headquarters Office to ensure and to supply communication at the time being!👏
Yes you are right it’s expensive, and now I can’t hear from 🇯🇵it’s back on, liliu ka oku tuo 3 fetongi tuku ho mou Kai uto, oku,mamafa, quality wise? ‘oku ika’i . God bless 🇹🇴 Malo Katalina🙏
❤Fakamonu atu fatongia motuhia Cable ki Vava’u mo Ha’apai talu Mei he Tokonaki mo ane hengihengi God Bless👏🇹🇴❤️🙏😊
Digicel & TCC are the two most provider , customers pay bill every month therefore they are responsible for the maintenance
Malo Katalina Fakafeta’i 😊
😊Pea na’e ai ha malu’i (insurance) ke falala ki ai he lave ki he (funds) mo e cost? Motu tuo 3 ‘oku ai leva e hoha’a ki ai.
Mole taimi hono eke uhinga e mate a e keipolo..Mou eke e taimi e ngaahi ai e mauau ..ha oku tuai ai e vaka ..ha enau palani ki he palopalema tatau he kaha'u..Ko ena kuo mahino he ikai ngaueaki e satelaite ke backup...
Koe haa e percentage 'oku tali e Tonga ?
Ko e haa oku ikai ke fakaataa ai he puleanga ngaahi kautaha fakataautaha hange ko StartLink a Elon Musk etc ke fokotuu iTonga?
Koe uu hoko 'oku 98% pe e ofi ki ai . Na'e fkngofua he'e kautaha e ni'ihi o a'u kihe 65 % 😂😂😂😂
KO’E tuo 3 ena ene motu vakai leva ha router e taha